mmaressa wrote:My cousin found this forum, we are Biancones from Riverside NJ. I'm interested in finding out more about Laura and if she was able to get more information on Ettore, my great grand father.

Hello,
you should give us more infos, like names, date and place of birth, marriage and death, immigrants records, or any other kind of info with more details.
bye ricbru

I am the cousin referred to earlier in the conversation. Honestly, most of the information I have was found here, and on the Ellis Island website. I know that our great-grandfather, Ettore Biancone, came from the Abruzzi region. My grandmother, his daughter, told me that he was the youngest of 18 children but was the only one who came to the States. So I would assume there is a lot of family still in Italy.

He initially settled in Wayne, PA before moving to Riverside, NJ. His wife was Josephine, and he had 8 children who survived, and two who passed away as infants. He owned a tailorshop in Riverside, which three of his sons later ran.

The Ellis Island manifest seems to be his as his father's name was Antonio and the dates all seem to make sense.

Ettore Biancone was my grandfather. I was amazed to find all of this information (while talking to my mom on the phone, and she confirmed all of the information as being correct.) However, what I noticed later was that my grandfather, and my mom's family, who are Biancones, was originally listed as Ettore Biancani. It seems he changed his name, or it was changed at some point after he arrived. How can I find out more about that?

You have some good people looking out for you here
they are the best bunch you will ever find they worked diligently and doggedly for me and mine and we found who we were looking for in about three weeks.

This is the research I'm referring to. My mother's side of the family are the Biancones. But it seems that when my grandfather came from Italy his name was listed as Biancani. I'm sure this was him because all of the pieces fit. However, I'm wondering if this was his name and he changed it at some point, or if it was misspelled on the ship manifest. How can I find out what his original name really was? My mom didn't seem too surprised that her father could have been a Biancani, but didn't offer any help in confirming that he may have changed his name. Is there a way I can find out if Biancanis or Biancones are from Terumo, because that is where he is from.
Thanks,
Rick

An i for an e, a for an o, etc. etc. Spellings just changed. Humans wrote the information & they spelt it the way it sounded to them. You may find both spellings in the Italian records, but most likely Bianconi.

Ibelieve your Bianconi/Biancone Family is from Torricella Sicura, Teramo, Abruzzi, Italy. This was obtained by the clues that you gave us in the previous posts, (you mentioned Teramo, Abruzzi, and Torricella).

Now if this is the correct town, then the Family History Center does have microfilm for the town that you can order and rent. It costs $5.75 a roll and you can view the birth, marriage, and death acts of your ancestors.

Suanj, that was all great clues, however, I do have to say that Lucarano did not make the second trip in 1909 for his name is crossed out. This means he either never made the trip or he was sent back. However, the manifest still has great clues on it.
and the second time in 1909 and joining to Ettore Bianconi the contact in Italy is Marta Cicero(?) wife

Thanks everybody for all of the help. My original question as to my grandfather's real name was solved (I think) by the discovery of Luciano. Since his name was spelled Biancone 4 times on the Ellis Island records (though they misspelled his first name once), it's pretty clear that my grandfather probably didn't change his name and it was just misspelled when he came over. Luciano was a tailor (according to the records) as was my grandfather. I've never heard of Luciano though, so I'm going to have to ask mom. I'll see what records we have on Ettore, maybe naturalization papers, or anything else to see what other information I can get, but for now, I think my mother is the best source.